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Blue Mercury - Leadership

Connect with Blue Mercury Leadership. We are building a social movement to inspire awesome people!

We focus all decisions around our clients, and what is right for them –
concentrating on our three core values -
individual growth, team cohesiveness and organisational prosperity

14/06/2026

Sometimes Monday morning needs a view from above the clouds....

Last month, I was on an early sunrise flight, looking out at that ridiculous kind of light that makes you remember the world is really quite beautiful, actually.

Below there were clouds, and above, there was colour and calm.

How easy is it for us to forget that both things can be true at once.

The clouds can be real, the pressure might be real, the full inbox, the meetings, the deadlines, the wobble, the uncertainty. They are all real...

But they are not the whole view.

Sometimes we need a bit of height, a breath and a different angle. Just a reminder that we can be in the middle of something messy and still find a bright spot above it.

So here is a tiny Monday morning reminder from somewhere above the clouds:
The view might change before the situation does.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆?

11/06/2026

Nothing says 'let’s talk about emotional culture' quite like freezing on Zoom in the middle of facilitating a session about emotional culture.

Look at that hand action! The Passion, The Energy, The Footwork.... Classic Too-Much Kayleigh... Perfect timing, really.

There I was, working with a community group, trying to create a useful conversation about how people feel, what they experience, and what we unintentionally leave behind in the room.

And then my laptop decided to become a still life. But me, internally, not frozen at all.

But the group were awesome - They waited. They laughed. They went with it. They made the moment feel human, not awkward. Thanks team!!

Because emotional culture is not just what we write on the wall, or a charter, or values statement, or when everyone and everything is behaving beautifully.

It is what people experience when things go a bit wrong too...

𝗜 𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗜'𝗺 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆... 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻?

10/06/2026

The book.

There is a special kind of panic that happens when you are setting yourself up for a workshop, feeling reasonably professional, reasonably prepared, reasonably like the person who is about to hold space for other humans, and then you realise the thing you have accidentally projected onto the giant screen is not the beautiful, polished workshop deck, but the draft of your own book.

The book of challenges, grief, stubbornness, questionable life choices, small wins, big lessons, and all the bits of myself I am slowly trying to wrangle into sentences that make sense....

For a brief moment, my private writing world was sitting there in full screen...

Just thought it was a reminder that the things we are building quietly in the background have a funny way of asking to be seen sometimes!!!

04/06/2026

I genuinely believe my dog has more friends than I do... We went on a Vizsla dog walk recently, and honestly, I have never seen 'networking' look so effortless.

Pepper had awkward small talk, no sticky name tags, no BS - 'so, what do you do?' - and definitely no pretending to understand someone’s job title.

Just a pack of red dogs absolutely delighted to be surrounded by other red dogs. If you don't know - Vizslas love other Vizslas.

There is something lovely about watching them recognise something familiar in each other.

The same energy, same chaos, and te same slightly needy, deeply affectionate, highly dramatic approach to life.

(Same bro...)

Not just people who do the same work as us, or work in the same org.

But people who understand the pace we move at, the questions we are asking, the things we care about.
The quirks we do not have to explain.

In leadership and team development, we talk a lot about belonging. But belonging is not just being included in the room, it is feeling recognised.

It is that little internal (or external) exhale of, 'Oh thank goodness, I’m not the only one.'

That is why communities, peer groups, networks and strong teams matter so much.

TLDR: Find your people.

Or, apparently, find a Vizsla.... They seem to have the whole thing figured out.

02/06/2026

I was talking with a group the other day about values, and how we take them from words on a page into the way we actually show up.

Because it’s easy to say we value courage, trust, growth, kindness, legacy.

It’s much harder to ask... but realistically, how would someone know?

- What would they see?
- What would they hear?

One of my values is LEGACY.

Not in a grand, build-a-statue-in-my-honour kind of way. More in the quiet, practical sense of wanting the work I do to leave something useful behind.

That the work I do builds a little more confidence, a little more language, perhaps some more trust.

Working with The Rees Hotel over the last three years has been such a beautiful reminder of that.

I’ve watched their team grow through their teamwork development, and now move into the leadership phase of their journey.

I’ve seen people find their voice, think more intentionally about how they work together and I'm starting to see that confidence build, not through one big shiny moment, but through steady conversations, reflection, practice, and commitment.

And honestly, it’s a real joy.

It’s why I do what I do.
(And why my mum did what she did too...)

Because legacy isn’t always something we leave at the end.
Sometimes it’s something we build in the room, one conversation at a time.

31/05/2026

There’s something lovely about marking the end of hard work.
We really do work better when we acknowledge visual progress.

I was invited to long lunch to celebrate the end of harvest, and it was such a pleasure to be in the room.

Not because it was fancy, although let’s be honest, good food and good wine never hurt anyone... *(apart from the Sunday hangover...)

It was awesome, tp look around and acknowledge the people, the graft, the early starts, the long days, the problem solving, the weather watching, the teamwork, the tired bodies, and the commitment that sits behind a finished wine season.

We don’t always do that very well in New Zealand, do we?

We are pretty good at getting on with it, head down, bum up, job done....
Straight into the next thing.

But there is something really powerful about creating a moment that says:

That mattered.
You mattered.
This took effort.

Celebration matters.

Not the forced, awkward, let’s-all-clap-because-the-agenda-says-so kind of celebration. The genuine kind.

The kind where people can exhale.
Where the end of one chapter is properly acknowledged before the next one begins.
Where hard work is seen, not just expected.

Watching that harvest celebration reminded me that rituals don’t have to be complicated, to be meaningful.

Sometimes it’s a long table, shared food, a few words of thanks, and the simple act of saying...

Well done.
We got here.

28/05/2026

Sometimes we need a face mask and a 90/00s band T-shirt.

We don't need another strategy session, or a five-step plan, or another productivity hack dressed up as self-care.

Just a blimmen reset, and a salad.

I’ve been thinking about how often we make wellbeing sound gosh darn complicated.

As if looking after ourselves needs to be perfectly scheduled, beautifully photographed, and backed by a new morning routine that starts at 5am and involves lemon water, journalling, and becoming a completely different person.

Sometimes it’s much simpler than that.

A face mask, a band T-shirt, a cuppa tea, an early night, a walk around the block, or a moment where nobody needs anything from you....

In leadership work, we talk a lot about resilience - but resilience is not just muscling through.

It is knowing when to pause., noticing when our battery is low, and giving ourselves permission to do something small, ordinary and useful before we hit the wall.

The small things count, because they remind us we are human.
And, you know what? Humans need recovery too, not just performance.

So if today has been a lot, this is your gentle nudge...
You do not need to completely overhaul your life.

You might just need a face mask, an oversized t-shirt and 20 minutes where the world can sort itself out... (you don't need to intervene!)

26/05/2026

Ever invested in something and felt a bit… disappointed?

A training course, new sofa, a leadership programme, a fancy tool everyone told you would change your life.

You hand over the money with a healthy dose of hope....
This will solve the problem, make things easier.

And then it’s… fine...

Not terrible, not a disaster, just not quite what you thought you were buying...
..Disappointment rarely comes from the thing itself, it comes from the gap between the promise and the lived experience.

The training might have been useful, but it didn’t connect to real work.
The tool might be clever, but no one knew how to use it afterwards.
The programme could have had a little more intentional design to it...

INVESTMENT IS ONLY PART OF THE STORY!
The real value comes from alignment.

And the best leadership development in the world won’t land if it isn’t connected to the people, the context, and the work that needs to change.

(Video for attention, namaste from my balcony... IYKYK what the disillusion is connected to...)

24/05/2026

Is it better to learn faster, or let it stick?

I run leadership programmes in a couple of different formats.

- Sometimes it’s one day a month over six months.

- Sometimes it’s two days at a time over three months.

And I’ve been thinking about the trade-off...

Because on paper, the shorter format is often more practical - it gives us less disruption, fewer calendar holds, less time 'out of the business'.

And I get it. Operationally, that totally matters, and makes sense.

But when we are talking about leadership development, culture, communication, trust, emotional intelligence, teamwork, values and accountability, speed isn’t always the best measure...

The magic often happens in the space between sessions.

Someone tries a different conversation, they notice an old habit, they come back with a real example. They realise the framework was not just a nice idea on a workbook page, but something they can actually use on a Tuesday afternoon when things are gross or messy.

So maybe the question isn’t:

“How quickly can we get through the content?”

Maybe it’s - What rhythm gives this the best chance of making a difference?
Convenient and effective are not always the same thing.

I'm interested... How do you balance practicality with giving learning enough time to actually stick????

21/05/2026

Customer experience is not a department….It’s a feeling.

I get the pleasure of delivering a course at the , and every time I walk in, I’m reminded what great customer experience actually looks like.

Not the ‘we have a customer journey map in a folder somewhere’ kind, the real genuine human kind.

The team are exceptional - they welcome me personally, they remember my coffee order (even when it has been months between check-ins). They are kind, thoughtful and generous in the small moments that would be very easy to overlook… Also they always tell me how good (or glamorous) I look!!!

When you are delivering a full day programme, arriving into a space where people make you feel known, creates trust before the work even begins.

I now recommend them to others, not because they asked me to, not because there was a referral strategy, or a glossy brochure.
But because I consistently have a great experience...

THAT IS THE POWER OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE!!! (I put it in capitals so you would actually read it!!!)

When people feel genuinely looked after, they remember it, they talk about it, they come back and they send others your way.

You can tell me you value care, service, manaakitanga, excellence or generosity... But I believe it when I feel it...

And at Crowne Plaza Christchurch, I feel it every time.

A beautiful reminder that the best customer experiences are rarely accidental, they are created by people who care.

Thanks Team!

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Queenstown
9300

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.bluemercury.co.nz/

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